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Vonage Expands Coverage and Changes E911
VoIP provider announces it now serves Springfield, Illinois, and makes changes on E911 access.
BY JOHANNE TORRES
TMCnet VoIP Minute Watch Columnist
I’ve got the latest buzz on VoIP-based calling service provider Vonage Holdings today. The company with the catchy ad theme song announced this week that it expanded its coverage area, now serving Springfield, Champaign, Decatur and Quincy, Illinois locally. The company also made the news recently when it sent a letter to users urging them to manually configure Vonage 911 service.
Starting this week, broadband users in the areas mentioned above will be able to sign up for Internet telephony-based services provided by Vonage. The company has already started offering free unlimited local and long distance calling to this area. Each plan includes the most popular features of regular land line telephone services such as call waiting, call forwarding and voicemail for a lower, flat monthly rate. The move will enable Vonage customers in Illinois’ capital city to keep their current numbers or choose telephone numbers within the 217 area code.
"Vonage is excited to bring the local area code to the Springfield region where Abraham Lincoln grew to be a man of purpose and destiny. Vonage’s phone service has quickly become the destination for people whose purpose is making inexpensive phone calls," said Jeffrey A. Citron, chairman & CEO of Vonage Holdings Corp. "Our local presence in these Illinois markets gives residents and small businesses the option to choose a phone service that provides a great alternative to current high priced traditional Bell providers."
The VoIP-based calling service provider also sent a letter to its subscribers last week explaining that the company has been routing 911 calls whether 911 has been manually configured or not (the company had previously provided users with instructions on how to do this manually). What seems very interesting about Vonage’s move here is that the company arranged to play, get an automated response saying: "Stop. You must dial 911 from another telephone. 911 is not available from this telephone line. No emergency personnel will be dispatched" when users dialed the three digits
My best friend, a Vonage subscriber, showed me the letter he received from the company. According to the letter, un-configured 911 callers are now routed to a 24-hour emergency response center (ERC). (I’ve heard that Vonage compares this particular service to GM's OnStar—yeah, okay…). TCS, a third-party technology and call center provider will be dealing with the routing of these phone calls placed via the Vonage Canada service.
You might remember reading my article about Vonage’s partnership with Intrado a few months ago. Vonage arranged to team up with Intrado in order to fix the E911 dilemma. The VoIP provider even went as far as to claim that the service, along with E911 access capabilities worked just fine in the state of Rhode Island.
I will certainly keep you posted on any developments on this story as well as any VoIP regulation issues as soon as more info becomes available. Stay tuned in!
Vonage Holdings Corp.
www.vonage.com
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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit:
http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100006&nm=Johanne%
20Torres
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